Ramirez keynote driving the day - Cyber back at center stage on Hill - Cellphone unlocking bills fly - Who might be the next FCC chief?

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DRIVING THE DAY: RAMIREZ KEYNOTES AT IAPP — It’s a big day for FTC watchers, as Edith Ramirez’s privacy conference appearance will be her first public comments since being designated agency head. We’d expect, obviously, that she’ll stick to privacy topics and not venture into other FTC issues. But there’s plenty to talk about regardless, and she’s likely to touch on identity theft, Do Not Track and what’s going on internationally, MT hears. She goes on at 11:30, and we’re tracking.

BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT: TAKEAWAYS FROM THE SENATE'S FIRST CYBER HEARING:

--MORE OF THE SAME? Tony Romm reports in today's paper: "The divisions that prevented Senate progress last year on cybersecurity reform resurfaced at a hearing Thursday, an early sign of the difficulties Congress could face as it tries again to patch up holes in the nation's digital defenses. … There were subtle flashes of old fights over liability protections for businesses, and familiar exchanges between Republicans and government witnesses as to whether a new, voluntary cybersecurity program would prove more mandatory and stringent. Still, the leaders of the two panels jointly holding Thursday's hearing emphasized this year would produce the very victory that eluded Capitol Hill last year." More here: http://politi.co/YQsbNq

--SEQUESTER TO HIT CYBER: The mandatory cuts hit everything, and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has been an administration leader in making the case for killing off the sequester — and she took that message to Senate cyber leaders Thursday. Specifically, Napolitano said the government's development of Einstein 3 Advanced, or E3A, a program meant to detect intrusions on federal computer systems, might be delayed by the cuts for "approximately one year." She also said sequestration could force the cancellation of key cybersecurity exercises with local and international partners. In sum, the secretary said sequestration "will require us to scale back the development of critical capabilities" to defend federal computer systems and work with the private sector on cybersecurity.

--MEANWHILE, ROUND 2 begins next week, March 13 at 10 a.m., when the House Homeland Security Committee holds its previously postponed session on cyber. The hearing, canceled because of "snow," now features testimony from DHS Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute.

DIVERGING TACTICS FOR CELLPHONE UNLOCKING BILLS — The bill introduced Thursday by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Mike Lee and Richard Blumenthal puts the FCC in charge of forcing the industry to allow mobile users to unlock their devices. That tack, which counters Sen. Ron Wyden’s bill that would write the rule directly into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, is an interesting development, since there have been questions over just what authority the FCC has there. That bill (which will soon have a companion measure in the House from Rep. Anna Eshoo) points to Title III of the 1934 Communications Act as the basis, but Klobuchar’s office didn’t get back to us with more on why the lawmakers think the FCC has jurisdiction. For its part, the commission itself is still looking into whether it can take action.

Wyden’s bill, though, has its own quirk. The measure, as written, would apply only if a mobile user legally owns a copy of the cell phone operating software. That may seem like a given for any cell phone owner, but CTIA, the wireless industry’s lobbying arm, wrote explicitly in earlier comments to the U.S. Copyright Office that the software is licensed to users, rather than owned by them, citing carrier agreements and an appellate court decision. Wyden’s bill assumes that’s not the case, so keep an eye out for pushback on that bit from the wireless industry.

Your MT-er, by the way, hears Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s bill will come out early next week and is likely to tack more closely to the Wyden approach, rather than put the FCC in charge.

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, where we are in great need for sunshine and warm weather this weekend. Practice rounds at The Masters begin one week from today, so shoot us a note abyers@politico.com or @byersalex with your pick to win the green jacket this year. Find the crew’s contact info below today’s Speed Read and find Pro on Twitter @POLITICOPro.

FOR YOUR PLANNING — The House Judiciary Committee’s subpanel on crime and homeland security will hold a hearing next Wednesday titled “Investigating and Prosecuting 21st Century Cyberthreats.” The meeting, we’re told, will look at what steps are being taken to combat cybercrime, and what Congress can do to help. There’s no guarantee that lawmakers will talk about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but it wouldn’t seem to be too far outside the scope. Of course, we’ll be tracking.

**A message about wireless tech in water management from CTIA: Boston is monitoring the flow and distribution of water, and more accurately billing customers, thanks to wireless. Learn more about Intelligent City-Water Management and other ways wireless drives innovation at wirelessislimitless.org/utility-management. Brought to you by CTIA- America's Wireless Companies **

FTC COMMENTS BACK UBER IN COLORADO DISPUTE — Agency staff didn’t explicitly come out in favor of the innovative transportation company, but that’s effectively the result of comments they submitted — with the authorization from the commissioners — to a Colorado regulatory body. Uber says a proposed rule from the state’s Public Utilities Commission up for consideration Monday would effectively keep it from operating in Denver, and FTC staff are telling the agency that the proposed regulation could hurt competition and innovation. “Staff recommends that a regulatory framework for passenger vehicle transportation should allow for flexibility and adaptation in response to new and innovative methods of competition, while still maintaining appropriate consumer protections,” they say in a letter sent this week. “CPUC also should proceed with caution in responding to calls for change that may have the effect of impairing new forms or methods of competition that are desirable to consumers.” More here, from the Denver Post: http://bit.ly/14AdW3a

SWIRE: LET’S AVOID ARMS RACE — The W3C’s Do Not Track working group has been no picnic, to be sure, but actions from stakeholders outside the process, too, could be plenty destructive, the man in charge of wrangling Internet companies and privacy advocates says. Internet ecosystem players need to keep that in mind, Peter Swire, the group’s co-chairman and de facto peace ambassador, said at the IAPP global summit Thursday. Both industry and privacy hawks have eyed game-changing strikes — like Mozilla’s recent announcement that Firefox will eventually block all third-party cookies. “We risk having more and more blocking from the user side and more and more aggressive action from the side of the industry. That breaks the Internet. That decreases the ability to have business models based on a stable platform. It’s anti-business and it’s anti-user choice,” he said. “I hope the various folks involved in those debates can take a deep breath and see we want a better Internet here, and Do Not Track is part of it.”

--BUT, A BUMP IN THE W3C ROAD: As the group tries to meet a self-desired deadline of July for a final public comment period, it also needs to deal with an appeal from marketing lawyer Alan Chapell that says the group’s charter was inappropriately extended in January. He’s charging that the extension was not discussed transparently, especially regarding its scope. Swire, for his part, has called that a distraction and said the group can keep working as a W3C advisory group considers the appeal.

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO — The Clash didn’t have FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in mind when they wrote their 1981 smash hit, but the technorati in town have been singing their own version of that song for months using him as the subject matter. To be sure, Genachowski has repeatedly said he isn’t going anywhere soon, and he’s booked to participate in a Q&A at the broadcasters’ convention on April 10.

--SO YOU GOT TO LET ME KNOW: That hasn’t stopped the talk of his departure or his successor. While the president nominates the members of the FCC and designates a chairman, the agency is independent of the executive branch. That makes it a bit awkward if the White House wants the chairman to go, as it would look as if it was too meddlesome.

--EXACTLY WHOM I’M SUPPOSED TO BE: That said, Core Capital Partners Managing Director Tom Wheeler has emerged as the candidate-du-jour for the job. While Wheeler, 66, is founder of Component Repair Technologies — an aerospace maintenance company — he has deep roots in the technology policy world as he headed both the National Cable and Telecommunications Association from 1976 to 1984 and Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association from 1992 to 2003.

Wheeler also has connections to President Barack Obama, working on the campaign and on the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group. Corporate executives and public interest representatives in town declined to talk publicly about the possibility that Wheeler could take the big office on the FCC’s 8th floor, but it’s notable that the reaction among the public interest community is somewhat muted.

--THIS INDECISION’S BUGGING ME: While industry can claim him as one of their own, some in the public interest space don’t see him as an automatic enemy. Wheeler headed the lobby shops back when cable companies and cellphone outfits were the upstarts, not consumer advocates’ entrenched enemies. They also point to his support of edge companies at Core and note that he is on the board of independent ISP EarthLink.

--SHOULD I COOL IT OR SHOULD I BLOW: That’s some consumer advocates’ perspective, but not all. Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, thinks he’s a bad idea. “He was the top lobbyist for not one, but two different industry lobbying groups,” Meinrath told MT. “I can’t comprehend why that isn’t a massive conflict of interest,” she added, saying his appointment would exemplify a “a bad revolving door.”

Attempts to contact Wheeler and Genachowski were unsuccessful, leaving us to think that if he goes there will be trouble, and if he stays it will be double.

TODAY: ISPs, CONTENT COMPANIES COME TOGETHER FOR CAS CHAT — Representatives from AT&T, Verizon and both the MPAA and RIAA are meeting up with Center for Copyright Information chief Jill Lesser on the Hill this afternoon to talk about the newly implemented Copyright Alert System. The group, which also includes the program’s advisory board members like CICAC’s Jerry Berman, Public Knowledge’s Gigi Sohn and Future of Privacy Forum’s Jules Polonetsky, will brief attendees on the controversial system’s ins and outs. Catch the 90-minute session at noon in Rayburn 2168. We’ll be there.

FCC ON BORDER CONCERN FOR INCENTIVE AUCTION — The National Association of Broadcasters told the commission yesterday that it needs to start negotiating new deals with Canada and Mexico to make sure the coming incentive auction goes smoothly. (Brooks Boliek has more, for Pros: http://politico.pro/WOf2VS) A commission spokesman, though, tells MT talks are already underway. “The commission has a long and successful history of negotiating spectrum matters with Canada and Mexico, and we have already begun to work with our neighbors to resolve issues related to the incentive auction,” he said.

MEMBERS HEAD TO #SXSW — The always-hyped festival kicks off today, and a handful of lawmakers are leaving D.C. for Austin. Among them: Sens. Jerry Moran and Mark Warner, plus Reps. Jared Polis, Darrell Issa and Blake Farenthold. Plenty of campaign and political operatives will be in attendance, too, so we won’t list them all. But we do know that Moran will speak on a panel this afternoon about why startups need to care about public policy, and he’ll join Warner on Saturday morning for a tech roundtable. Attendees there, we’d imagine, will get a heavy dose of high-skilled immigration chatter from the two Startup 3.0 Act co-founders.

IBM CEO POINTS TO OBAMA CAMPAIGN AS ‘ERA OF YOU’ — The tech company’s leader, Ginni Rometty, talked to the Council on Foreign Relations last night about how big data fits into IBM’s “Smarter Planet” mantra. Traditionally, companies and organizations have only been able provide value to segments of the population — males between 17 and 25, for example — but big data has allowed groups to deliver to the individual, she said, pointing to the Obama operation as a prominent example. “The rapid emergence of Big Data, social networks, mobility, location-based tracking is generating 1,000 clues about the individual human being. This will bring about the death of the ‘average’ and usher in the era of ‘you’ — the unique consumer, citizen, patient, student,” she said. Catch her remarks here: http://on.cfr.org/Xu9uU5

HOW #STANDWITHRAND CAUGHT ON — The endurance of the #StandWithRand hashtag on Twitter is a fitting digital coda for the Kentucky senator's impressive 13-hour drone about drones, a catchy online groundswell to match an unusual political moment. It continued to trend nearly a full day after the filibuster ended, a testament to its power in a world of throwaway hashtags. The first use of #StandWithRand came from @C4Liberty at 12:46 p.m. on Wednesday, an hour into the filibuster, according to data from Flow140, the proprietary Twitter-analyzing software Edelman PR debuted on Inauguration Day. That tweet got retweeted 33 times. When @C4Liberty used it an hour later, though, the hashtag exploded, with that tweet getting around 7,300 retweets. Flow140 found three other significant "amplifiers": A message from Sen. Ted Cruz got more than 6,200 retweets, and Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck had tweets with more than 1,500 apiece. Of course, as viral as the hashtag became, it wasn’t completely organic. @C4Liberty is, after all, the feed for the Center For Liberty, a 501(c)4 founded by Rand Paul's dad, Ron.

SPEED READ

LEGISLATION COMING ON ELECTRONIC DEVICES IN FLIGHT: Claire McCaskill wants to expand the use of tablets and other tech during flights, Burgess Everett reports: http://politi.co/ZirDUR

**A message about wireless tech in water management from CTIA: Boston is monitoring the flow and distribution of water, detecting leaks and back-ups, and more accurately billing customers, all thanks to wireless. Hundreds of underground sensors in the water and sewage systems send data every 15 minutes, allowing utilities to manage their systems more efficiently, and at a lower cost. Learn more about Intelligent City-Water Management, other ways wireless spectrum is being put to valuable use, and why more spectrum is needed in the future to fuel even more innovation at wirelessislimitless.org/utility-management. Brought to you by CTIA- America's Wireless Companies **